Flexible stencil card and holder therefor



Dec. 5, 1933. H. P. ELLIOTT FLEXIBLE STENCIL CARD AND HOLDER THEREFOR Original Filed July 15. 19:51

ATTORNEY Patented Dec. 5, 1933 I-Iarmon P. Elliott, Water-town, Mass, assignor V to Elliott Addressing Machine Company, a corporation of Massachusetts 1 riginal application July Divided and this 15, 1931, S erial .No. application March 23,1932. Serial No. 600,622 2Claims. (o1.101--127) Thisinvention relates generally to addressing apparatusof the type. shown and described in my Patent No. 1,909,9l0ydated May 16, 1933; The present disclosure is substantially the same Q as part of what was described in said copending application with the exception of one added feature, andis a division of'my subsequent and still copending application Serial No. 550,835 filed July 15,1931; 1 More specifically the present invention comprises an improved form of stencil having a re1atively large'printing area or held, usually that of the message bearing surface of a standard postal card, together with an improved frame orholder for handling such large stencillwhen used to print upona plurality of postal or post cardsor letter heads or othersheets, the stencilled legend cut therein. f i

liHeretofore it has long been customaryito'use a plurality of small stenci1cards,each having a name and address cut, therein, for addressing postal cards, envelopes, etc.;. by running said stencil cards successively along guidesto a printing zone in a suitable addressing machine, and to arrest such of said stencils as may be selected for two or three repeat printing of the name and address cut therein, but, so far as I am aware, no stencil having a-large enough printing field to include the entire message bearingface of a postal card and capable of use in an addressing machine, has been. developed (prior'to the reduction to practice of the invention of my above noted patent), thus obtaining the result that the same apparatus, may be used alternatively either for printing the series of addresses one upon each postal card, or for printing the same message, or other uniform matter, upon the other face. i i X The reasonswhy this result was not therefore attained commercially were that for successful use inconjunction with such apparatus the stem cil cards have heretofore hadto have relatively stiff frames which, whenmade large enough to present a message-printing field will not easily assume the long are of curvature necessarily assumed when such stencils are being cut on the platen roller of an ordinary typewriter; while, on the other hand, if made withfiexible frames for that purpose, they then will not have enough stiffness to retain their shape when being pushed back and forth rapidly an indefinite, number of times through the printing zone of the addressing machine, or other ink applying apparatus of its that characten to produce some hundreds or thousands of reprintings of the same lengthy legend or message.

' These conflicting difficulties are both. avoided by mypresent invention in carrying out which the following rocedure is adopted: I make a so highly flexible stencil, of any desired size, having a relatively thin paper frame. Said frame gives the. stencil just the stiffness sufiicient to enable it to be handleclin. the typewriting machine, but not sufiicient to prevent it curling 55. smoothly about the platen roll thereof during the stencil cutting operation. Then I insert such flexible, cut stencil in a thin, but relatively stiff metal carrier having awindow large enough to expose the whole printing field of such tencil, which carrier and enclosed stencil can be insert; ed in the guides of the ink-applying portion of a standard stencil printing apparatus and there withstand the pulling and thrusting of the rapidly reciprocating feeding mechanism by which it is moved backand forth through the printing zone. 3

A subsidiary difficulty sometimes encountered Whena; device of the above character is employed is a lack of certainty of initially accurate registry of the stencilwith the carrier and with the inkapplying platens (usually rotating sectors) of the printing apparatus, and a failure to maintain such registry during the many successive printing operations to which the stencil is subjected. 35 This difficulty is also overcome according to my present invention by employing some simple method of interlocking thestencil and the carrier, as by notching one and providingthe-other with a projection adapted to engage such notch.

The invention has certain other objects and advantages hereinafter to be pointed out, or which may be easily discernible by those skilled in the art.

The best form of apparatus at present known 5 to me, embodying my invention, is illustrated in the accompanying sheet of drawing in which:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of the stencil in operative position in its supporting frame or carrier and v 1 Fig. 2 is a perspective view of the new stencil blank as prepared for shipment and storage.

Throughout the drawing like reference characters indicate like parts. In Fig. 1 is shown a stencil 7 mounted in a rectangular carrier frame indicated generally at 8. This carrier 8 has such external width and thickness that it may be slid by hand part way into the usual grooved guides of an addressing machine using stencil cards, such as shown in my above noted patent. Such -1 machine may have a slide which has a laterally projecting lug which extends in front of an upwardly projecting lug 15 on one forward corner of stencil carrier frame 8, so as to retract the carrier, and stencil, after each printing opera tion, back in position withits rear bumper l6 resting against a horizontally extending stop provided on the main frame of the machine (not shown). Said carrier 8, however, is of such length that, even when in this retracted position, its front end extends within and slightly beyond the bite of the usual revolving platen sectors one of which carries ink.

The blanks from which stencils '7 are made may each have a flap 140 attached thereto as shown in Fig. 2. This is swung under the blank when the blank is being made into a stencil on a typewriter in the usual way. After stencilling this flap is torn off, or, in any case, before the stencil is inserted in carrier 8 for use.

The body of this blank'is preferably made of a thin, loose fibred paper which has been coated with a film of a material which will be displaced by blows of the type when being written on in a typewriting machine to form a stencil in the well known way.

The stencil carrier is formed in two parts, an upper frame 8a which has wide, shallow notches 27a out in either end, and a lower frame 81) which is of the same external width and length as 8a, but has integral slips So on either end of a width suflicient to fit snugly within the above mentioned notches 27a in the ends of frame 8a. This lower frame 81) is preferably stamped out of a I thin sheet of brass or other flexible material so that clips 8c may be bent up around the ends of 8a as shown in Fig. 1. The paper stencil blank 7, and/or its paper frame 79:, have notches 27, at either end corresponding to the notches 27a in the ends of frame 8?).

The assembled frame 8, and its contained stencil '7, may be slid into the stencil guides of a stencil addressing and printing machine such as shown in whole or in part in my above noted patent and application and reciprocated therein to print the legend cut in the stencil on as many postal cards or letter sheets as may be fed to the machine for such printing.

It will thus be seen that such grooved guides,

" 1 the two part stencil carrier and the notched stencil frame 79: cooperate to ensure, at all times during the printing operation, a perfect registry between the carrier and the stencil, and between the stencil and the ink-carrying portion of any proper platen sector on such machine. The clips 80 on base-portion 8a of the carrier 8 engage the notches 27 in the ends of stencil frame "Izc and hold it in predetermined position with reference to said base portion 8a. The two superposed car- T rier members 8a and 8b, being of the same width,

are held in proper registry one with the other by the grooved guides of the machine into which they fit snugly, and the entire assembly so formed can be fed forwardv in such relation to an inkbearing sector that the ink-bearing portion of the latters face will press on the printing field of the stencil, but on no other part thereof; while the end portions of the sector will bear only on the side portions of the stencil carrier and thereby exert the necessary feeding action thereon, the contained stencil being thereby relieved from all strain resulting from the feeding operation, all as xplained in my above noted copending application, Serial No. 550,835.

Among the advantages of the invention may be mentioned the perfect registration of the stencil with the frame 8, ensured both initially and throughout the entire period of its use, the ease of the stencil cutting operation on the typewriter, and the combined novel functions of the flap 140 in serving as a blanket during the cutting of the stencil (thus dispensing with the use of the loose blanket sheet otherwise then required), and as a protector for the stencil up to the time when it must be torn off before the stencil is inserted in the frame. Finally, as stencils are usually inked a few times as soon as made for the purpose of rendering them more legible, this flap 140 then serves as a backing during such operation, in place of the loose backing sheet usually then employed, and which soon becomes generally smeared with ink. Also, as the printing on the flap then done is more legible than the stencil itself, such printed flap serves for proof reading and identification purposes while in position and as a duplicate record of the stencil, after such fiap is torn off.

Various changes could be made in the details of the construction above'described, without departing from the underlying principles of the invention, so long as the relative arrangement of, and cooperation between, the parts, or some of them, are retained within the limits defined by the appended claims.-

Having described my invention, I claim:

1. A sheet of stencil paper of generally rectangular shape having a relatively shallow notch in the exterior edge of each end, with which notches projections on a skeleton carrier clamped on said sheet may engage to hold it in definite registry with openings in said carrier when said stencil ends are slid into their proper positions in said carrier.

2. The combination of a flexible paper stencil of generally rectangular shape having a wide, shallow notch in eachend, and a supporting carrier therefor comprising two rectangular thin metal frames of substantially the same exterior dimensions as said stencil and between which said ii:

stencil is clamped, one of said frames having extensions of the same width as said notches forming lugs on its ends which are bent around the adjacent ends of the other frame to serve as clamping means, and which engage said notches to prevent said stencil sliding relatively to said frame.

*HARMON P. ELLIOTT. 

